Wow, thank you for the post @
Oceanarium.
I will try to answer your questions as best I can with the 'information' so far. Though I should warn, things are likely to change.
Personally I like the idea of top quality frags on offer for a fair $. I would be keen to participate myself, but wonder how that would work out or whether it would be appropriate being a business?
Being a business will make no difference as the idea is conservation. You will need to follow the rules of the program the same as everyone else, whatever the rules turn out to be.
The more you think about it the more complicated the concept arises. In a perfect world the person would obtain / purchase the frag and an agreement would need to be in place that they would indeed make future frags from that coral available to the program or perhaps they could be free to do what they want after returning a set amount back?
Each frag will have a frag cell. The frag cell will be numbered and dedicated to the original coral (where the frag came from). There may be multiple frag cells (with unique I.D numbers) for a single original coral. The frag cell with then be dedicated to that particular 'original coral' for the remainder of it's life. Basically each frag cell obtained must be passed on with a replacement frag (from the previous frag) to the next person. Should a member obtain a frag cell, grow out the frag, frag it, then pass on the frag cell with a frag inside of it, whatever is left in their tank (the original frag they received) is theirs to do what they like with. They can sell it or swap it outside of the system, or let it grow and do nothing. It will be up to the member as they have already repaid their debt.
A lot of people might just want to buy keep the coral and grow it out never to return any?
Every frag cell will be tracked. We will know who has the frag cell at any given point. Should a user fail to pass on the frag cell (and a frag), they will be banned from the frag system and any other trading system (including the marketplace) on The Reefuge permanently.
Some like me if I was to participate would be happy to return a number back to the program but if I was able to mass produce it I might need to sell through my business at a latter date?
As long as you repaid your 'debt' (whatever you receive you send out again), then you are free to do as you like with what you have grown in your tank. You can sell it, trade it, etc. It is at that point 100% property of yourself.
Others might just have a tank wipe out or lose the frag or it might just not grow well in their system so they are not able to return any?
No idea what happens in this case. Perhaps we can figure it out?
No program would be perfect I was just wondering if there should be some clear rules in the form of a gentleman's agreement of what was expected of you should you purchase one of these corals? Just something simple like swear with your hand on a bible whilst standing on one leg or the like if you fail to return a frag to jump in a fire. :p
There will be a mandatory buy-in when you enter the system. The cost at this time is not known, but that should cut away most of the time-wasters and those who never intended on giving anything back. Should a user fail to pass on the frag cell (and a frag), they will be banned from the frag system and any other trading system (including the marketplace) on The Reefuge permanently.
Seriously just a simple agreement to endeavour to do your best to return at least one frag back to the program. Then perhaps some points / reward system for those who manage to bring lots of frags back ?
No reward will be in place. This is a system for those who wish to participate. The reward will be seeing the single frag multiply over and over again.
I can see a lot of long term benefit to the hobby being able to demonstrate a long lineage from a coral once collected in the wild. I have always tried myself to keep tabs on our own corals where they came from and when also numbers sold over the years. This info can be very beneficial when demonstrating to certain organizations as to the impacts our hobby makes on wild reefs and perhaps what we are doing about it. You see a lot of statistics wheeled out about numbers of fish corals etc that die before they even reach the shop etc. its nice to be able to wheel out some of your own when the need arises. :D[/quote]
As stated before, each frag cell will be documented and thus everyone will be able to see how many hands have had hold of its contents, and how many 'children' the original cell has had.
Thanks.